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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11 th NOVEMBER 2013
ANNOUNCED: MORE ARTISTS TO RECEIVE FUNDING FROM MOMENTUM
Today (11th Nov) PRS for Music Foundation has announced further acts to benefit from Momentum Music Fund grants of between £5k and £15K. These artists are:
All We Are Bo Ningen Dirg Gerner / Flako Jaws Psychologist Soulsavers Stealing Sheep These New Puritans
Listen to the Deezer playlist here www.deezer.com/playlist/621459515
The Momentum Music Fund was set up by PRS for Music Foundation and Arts Council England to make grants available to artists, already growing in profile, to make the crucial step to the next level of their careers. These latest artists were selected from over 200 that entered the 2 nd round of funding applications. Since its launch in May 2013, Momentum has attracted 700 applications demonstrating the huge demand for financial support amongst artists striving to advance their career.
The decisions on which artists receive Momentum funding are made by a panel of independent advisors drawn from record labels (majors and indies), radio, PR, the music press, promotion companies, booking agents and artist management.
Further promotional opportunities offered by Momentum digital music partner Deezer, exclusively for the funded artists, are being announced in the coming weeks.
Vanessa Reed, Executive Director of PRS for Music Foundation, said: “We continue to be impressed by the talent and potential of the hundreds of artists who’ve come forward for Momentum funding this year. It’s great that over half of this second list of selected artists is made up of bands from
Liverpool, Stoke on Trent, Essex and Birmingham, demonstrating the quality of music being made outside of London as well as within. Congratulations to everyone who’s been selected to date - we look forward to receiving more proposals in 2014.”
Alan Davey, Chief Executive of Arts Council England, said: “Three of this year’s Mercury nominees have benefited from music programmes that have been funded by public money through the Arts Council.
“Momentum music fund is a great example of how a little money can go a long way in helping artists at crucial points in their careers. As the fund moves from strength to strength I look forward to watching these artists develop alongside it, and who knows, maybe seeing their names on nominee shortlists in the not so distant future.”
Stealing Sheep said: “We are really happy and grateful to be receiving help from Momentum, alongside other great independent artists. We believe that this kind of financial support strengthens and sustains the creative community, allowing for more collaborations and skills to diversify and develop.”
Psychologist said: "This award will allow for a level of autonomy and creative control that I would in no way be able to afford on my own budget.”
All We Are said: “It’s so important for us to build our live show and tour as much as possible and this financial support will help us achieve our goals.”
Momentum is managed by PRS for Music Foundation, supported using public funding from National Lottery through Arts Council England, and is in association with Deezer.
Further details about Momentum and its online application process can be found at www.prsformusicfoundation.com .
For more information contact:
Sarah Thirtle for press enquiries: [email protected] Laura Whitticase for application enquiries: [email protected]
ENDS
Notes to Editors
About the Momentum funded artists:
All We Are Three piece, Liverpool based All We Are write pop arrangements and house them within a psych tinged, melancholic world. Self described as sounding like ‘the Bee Gees on diazepam’, All We Are’s slow rhythmic shuffles, pop harmonies and lovelorn lyrics succinctly captures a universal quality to which everyone can relate. The trio, made up of a Norwegian (Guro Gikling), an Irishman (Richard O’Flynn) and a Brazilian (Luis Santos), met whilst studying in Liverpool two years ago, and have since gone on to become a cornerstone of the city’s music scene. www.facebook.com/thisisallweare
Bo Ningen Bo Ningen arrived when Taigen and Kohhei’s bands played on the same bill. Bad news for their previous band mates but each had found a kindred spirit, someone else who wanted to leave ‘rock’ behind and commit to something much weirder. Mon Chan and Yuki joined in a similar fashion, hearing the beyond fucked up noises of this new two piece. The fundamentals were laid and the four expatriate cosmonauts were set to channel the “pure music” they had in mind. Though they come from Gunmma, Tajimi, Nishinomiya, and Tokyo, they coalesced in London. Musically, they channel their country’s legacy of obscure, brain warping heavy psych: all traceable beneath their esoteric sound. It’s evident however that they were in the mood for discovery: fusing their tastes in Acid Folk and Noise and hurling them into the electric cataclysm along with a weighty dose of Sabbath and Nirvana.
Dirg Gerner / Flako Unintentionally off the grid and committed to his personal sound evolution, Dario Rojo Guerra is best described as a Soul documentarian. With roots in Chile, raised in Germany, and now based in London the man himself is a melange of flavor. His sonic palette is constantly evolving and full of boundless soul. As a producer appearing under the name Flako he keeps on surprising with cutting edge productions and remixes. Under the name Dirg Gerner he reveals his other side as Singer and Songwriter and is equally exciting with lots more to come. www.kwatro.info
Jaws JAWS are a fresh young band hailing from the currently buzzing Birmingham music scene. Ending 2012 on a high note with the success of their singles ‘Toucan Surf’ and ‘Surround You’ accompanied by a flurry of praises for their lush garage pop, the young Birmingham four piece JAWS entered the year with four sold out shows across the UK with fellow B towners Swim Deep and a packed headline show at London’s Old Blue Last.
April 2013 marked the release of their first EP, Milkshake, to many accolades
and an excitedly growing live fan base. The band have, at this point seen their songs appear on the unlikely cross section from Made In Chelsea to Match Of The Day and had also licensed their music to the forthcoming Ubisoft video game Rocksmith 2014. This year also saw the band playing at a number of major UK festivals, namely Camp Bestival, Reading & Leeds, and rounding up the festival season in style at Bestival. www.jawsjawsjaws.co.uk
Psychologist Psychologist is an experimental pop music project started by Iain Woods. After starting to write and record demos at home on an 8 track as a teenager, Woods then moved to Brighton to attend Art School. It was here that his interest in the possibility of ‘popmusic as fine art’ was honed. For his degree show at Brighton School of Art, Woods self released his ‘Stanislavsky EP’ – which went on that summer to be picked up by BBC radio and to win him Channel 4’s ‘New Music Talent’ award. After a year of gigging in and around London and receiving an enormous amount of attention, he eventually signed to Moshi Moshi imprint Not Even Records to release his two part ‘Epidural Collection’ in 2011. Woods chose to take his time to record his debut full length LP. spending 2012 recording his debut and 2013 mixing and creating the videos and artwork. The record is an intense and energetic romp through the human psyche. Woods has said ‘It’s basically a thankyou letter to all of the great albums that looked after me as a teenager – and it’s very much an ode to that time in our lives’. The album will be released in early 2014. www.psychologistmusic.com
Soulsavers Soulsavers are a production and writing duo from the North West of England. They have released four albums since 2003 encompassing electronica, soundtracks, hip hop, soul, blues, gospel, rock and country, collaborating along the way with Josh Haden, Mark Lanegan, Jason Pierce, Will Oldham, Mike Patton and Dave Gahan, amongst many others.
2012's 'The Light The Dead Sea' was described by The Guardian as, “widescreen epics somewhere between Johnny Cash's American Recordings, U2 circa One and Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks…magnificent songs about demons and failings, morality and mortality, regret, faith and devotion”. www.thesoulsavers.com
Stealing Sheep Noisily drenched voodoo pop from Liverpool, in the hazy shape of psychedelic folktronica. Medieval synths, hypnotic beats, spiraling whammy guitars, MYSTICAL harmonies and apocalyptic thunder drones. Stealing Sheep’s story began in a café above a shop in the heart of Liverpool during the summer of 2010. After Becky Hawley, Emily Lansley and Lucy Mercer bonded over their disparate influences, they decided to see whether they could forge something unique by combining them. You could hear it in their first recordings, released collectively as the Noah & The Paper Moon e.p. And it’s there flowing
throughout their debut album proper Into The Diamond Sun a collection of songs that don’t so much defy genres as gleefully hand pick the most mellifluous elements of everything from voodoo folk, DiY pop, post punk and analogue electronica and stitch them together into a glorious harmonic whole. www.stealingsheep.co.uk
These New Puritans These New Puritans were formed in their Thames Estuary homeland by twins Jack and George Barnett and friend Thomas Hein, in the mid 2000s. Jack had been writing songs since the age of seven and recording them since 12 on his older brother’s 4 track; George joined him on drums and the band grew out of this.
The band’s debut album, the manic patchwork of ideas Beat Pyramid, and the series of videocasts that preceded it, were hailed by the NME as demonstrating a “span of ideas and singularity of vision that simply shouldn’t happen to 20 year olds”, while the Observer Music Monthly called it “utterly engrossing and totally essential”.
Hidden (often stylised as Ħ ðð ĥ), a magically bleak album of stark oppositions – natural and manmade, digital and acoustic; elegiac woodwind set against close up knife sharpening and dancehall rhythms – was notably critically acclaimed. With its “extraordinary range, originality and clarity of purpose that defy overall comparison with anything else,” (NME) it pulled together a host of unlikely influences to create something personal, unique and unmistakably These New Puritans. www.thesenewpuritans.com
About PRS for Music Foundation PRS for Music Foundation is the UK's leading funder of new music across all genres. Since 2000 PRS for Music Foundation has given more than £16 million to over 4500 new music initiatives by awarding grants and leading partnership programmes that support music sector development. Widely respected as an adventurous and proactive funding body, PRS for Music Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity including British Music Abroad, a music export scheme run in partnership with UKTI, ACE, British Underground and Musicians Union, for bands attending showcases overseas. www.prsformusicfoundation.com
About Arts Council England Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2010 and 2015, we will invest £1.9 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1.1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.
www.artscouncil.org.uk
About Deezer Deezer delivers an exciting, broad and truly global music experience to more than 10 million monthly active users across 182 territories. With 4 million subscribers and more than 100 million shareable playlists, Deezer allows fans to enjoy music unconstrained by any of the barriers of the past, providing unlimited access to a catalogue of 25 million tracks, instantly available on any device smartphone, laptop, tablet, home speakers, car, or work PC. Deezer’s mantra is music discovery, helping fans rediscover the joy of finding and sharing fantastic new music through specially selected editorial recommendations for every single market in which it is present. With an international partnership with Facebook and strategic telecoms partnerships with Orange, Everything Everywhere and Telenor, amongst many others, Deezer is committed to bringing music to new audiences worldwide. www.deezer.com